One of my clients last week asked how she added a picture of herself when she commented on blogs.
And I thought, it’s easy but if you don’t know, you don’t know!
Those little pictures are called Gravatars and the Gravatar you create follows you around wherever you comment…like magic!
But it doesn’t have to be a picture of yourself. It can be an image, a caricature or a symbol. Basically it just has to be an image.
But before I take you though the process, why add a Gravatar in the first place?
I think it helps your comment stand out. It can help brand you. Blog owners and other commenters like to see people’s faces. A nice smiley face staring at you makes you want to read their comment, doesn’t it?
Adding a Gravatar
Step 1. Go to http://www.gravatar.com/ and click on the “Sign up” menu tab
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Step 2. Add the email you would normally use when commenting on blog sites and click
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Step 3. You will be informed, “We’ve sent you an activation email.”
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Step 4. Go to your email inbox. You will have an email from “Gravatar” and the subject line will say, “Welcome to Gravatar”. Open the email and click on the confirmation link inside.
Step 5. On the new screen that appears after you click on the confirmation link, enter:
Username (can be any name) and check is it available by clicking ‘Check’
Password (twice)
(Make a note of your username and password)
And then click the ‘Signup’ button.
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Step 6. Your account has now been set up. Now let’s add a photo or image of your choice. The screen you are now on says, “Whoops, looks like you dont have any images yet! Add one by clicking here!”
Click on “Add one by clicking here!”
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Step 7. Here you have the choice to decide where to get your image from. The majority of the time, it would be from your PC.
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Step 8. Click “My computers hard drive”
Step 9. Click on ‘Browse” to fine the image you’d like to upload. Click ‘Next’.
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Step 10. You can then ‘crop’ your image.
Step 11. Once you are happy with your finished image, click “Crop and Finish”
Step 12. Choose a rating for your image. It’s normally “G” (G rated Gravatar is suitable for display on all websites with any audience type.)
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Step 13. That’s it. You have now added an image associated with your email. Next time you comment using that email you have just used to set up your Gravatar, your chosen image will be displayed alongside the comments.
You can more emails and more images to your Gravatar account if you wish.
Are you more inclined to read comments if there is a nice image associated with the comment?
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That’s a very neat tutorial Andrew, I believe that many people doesn’t know how to do it. Tweeted it for you my friend. 🙂
Cheers,
Lee
.-= Lee Ka Hoong´s last blog ..Make Money Online With Twitter – Ad.ly =-.
Thanks, Lee – much appreciated.
Andrew
Yes this is nice tutorial, I also did not know before about it, I think gravatar help us for give more identification.
.-= chandan@work at home´s last blog ..15 most effective twitter tools [Digg] =-.
I had the same question several months ago. I find that having a nice gravatar is a must if I want to get most out of commenting. So I use this yellow smiley which I use on all social media sites I’m active on. Hope people will easily recognize me.
.-= Phaoloo´s last blog ..Top 19 Tools To Hide Folders On Windows =-.
It is basic tut but many bloggers missed. gravatar help bloggers build their personal branding online very good
.-= Tinh´s last blog ..Earn Up To $100 With PayPal Wishlist on Facebook =-.
Very interesting info and good tutorial to help when making posts and using an image for your posts. I try to use my gravatar image whenever possible.
Very nice tutorial. This tutorial be very benifical for all the new blogger. Excellent post, I too learnt about gravatar.com from one of my blog friends……… 🙂
Very good post and good work done too……… 🙂
Thanks Sandesh – for dropping by. Hope to see you again soon.
Andrew
Excellent tutorial, step by step the way it should be.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog? =-.
Thanks, Dennis!
I think the gravatar plays an important role as some users link it to you and know who you are and whats your website just by seeing the gravatar.
Most of the themes now days cater for the gravatar already where as there are plugins and hacks to place the gravatar by your comments you leave.
.-= George Serradinho´s last blog ..Serious Monday Roundup #18 =-.
You’ve hit it exactly my friend. A Gravatar is an awesome branding tool.
This is why I get so irked in forums and such with Homer Simpson and other such nonsense everywhere.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..How Do You Feel About A Static Homepage On A Blog? =-.
I do have 2 pictures which I use – one of me smiling and one with my dog (now in pet heaven). Oh, we miss him!
Andrew
Hi
Andrew, you have given detail tips for creating image in gravatar.com. Really I also didn’t know before about it. Thanks for sharing your technique. I will create my image in gravatar.com, for upcoming commenting.
Chris,
That’s nice to hear – tell us when you have it loaded and we’ll come and have a look!
Andrew
Gravatar training 101.
All serious bloggers should have one set up and you sir have made the process easy.
.-= Willie Plasencia´s last blog ..Kompozer, A Free Webpage Tool For You! =-.
Thanks Willie!
Nice to see you over here.
Andrew
Many thanks Andrew for pointing out this tutorial! I was another of apparently very many of us who had no idea about Gravatars.
Next step – I’ll try to work out how to share this post on Facebook (I emphasise the word “try”!)
Kind regards!
Joseph
.-= Joseph Archibald´s last blog ..Warrior Forum Challenge – Twilight Posterz progress? =-.
Joseph,
You are welcome. Nice Gravatar!
To Facebook ‘like’ – just click on the ‘Like’ button to the left of this comment!
Thanks.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Blogging: Who’s Made It Work? =-.
Thanks Andrew! And Facebook was a breeze, which came as a bit of a pleasant surprise!
Regards
Joseph
.-= Joseph Archibald´s last blog ..Warrior Forum Challenge – Twilight Posterz progress? =-.
Hi, Andrew
Okay, let’s see if this works 🙂
Thanks for sharing this great information, and also for presenting it so that anyone can follow the instructions. If you see an avatar next to this comment, it means that I was able to get it to work.
Kim,
I can see your smiling face – it worked!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..WordPress SEO Plugin: Do We Need Another One? =-.
Hi Andrew,
a lot of thanks for your tutorial.
I’m french website owner and wish to
translate this post for my own blog.
Do you authorize me to do that?
Please let me know.
Best regards,
Jean Michel
Jean Michel
Yes – happy for you to translate if you add a link to original source, right here.
Thanks.
Andrew
hi Andrews,
of course. After publishing I’ll
send you the link.
Thanks again,
Jean Michel
Andrew, thanks for the primer (and reminder). I DO have a WordPress (.org) blog and have never been able to get Gravatar to accept my user name and password, so with your article prompt here, decided to try to sign up for an unrelated account. We’ll see if that works this time around :-).
By the way, was I the only one chuckling at the fact that your first bunch of replies to comments did not include an avatar? Is there something you can recommend for those of us who have blogs to avoid this possible snafu (I haven’t met it yet on my own blog, but imagine I will at some point in the future if you did with a post purporting to solve this issue – it’s that Murphy’s Law thing). Thanks.
Nanette,
I think I must have used a different email address when I was replying to those earlier comments.
ANdrew
Hi Andrew
Gravatars are good and can be fun. I have a few differenet email address and a different Gravatar for each email, and depending on what I am going is to what email I use. Thanks for sharing – Neil
Thanks, so much Andrew! I always wanted to know how to do this. Great explanation. DONE!
Great, Debra. I’m glad the post helped.
Andrew